I figured there would be lots of beautiful stock shots in this one (and there are!)
So I wanted to come up with something that I hoped would be different. Time to go to the source!
I looked online for local apiaries, and sent out a few emails. Peter Ostrowski was kind enough to invite me out for a tour of his hives. We got suited up in the full white outfit:
and went out to the hives.
My vision was to get a closeup of a bee and the actual honey itself. This is actually nectar going through the process of becoming honey. The honey itself is capped off with wax produced by the bees, and wasn't quite as interesting (though fascinating in its own way)
It was hard to isolate a single bee, since the hives were very active. I wasn't whether the shots would actually work out, since Pete would lift out the frame and hold it while I took the shot. Between the two of us hand holding frame and camera, I figured that I would be pretty much doomed -- but they worked out quite well!
Here's Pete lifting up one of the frames:
I'm so incredibly thrilled -- the score is current at 7.43 with 88 votes! It was such a fun experience, and I'm so grateful to Pete and his wife Brenda. They were incredibly kind and informative!
I'll write more as the week goes on, but here's a link to more of the morning's photo shoot:
It's only Friday.... are you sure we can't stop the voting now?
7.5323/124 :)
oh -- the white spots in the cells were because I tried using my 580ex flash with a little portable soft box thingy. I had no idea what I was doing. I don't know if it made a difference, because I forgot to take some without the flash. But that's what the reflections were all about. :)
[Jun. 14th, 2011 10:09:07 PM]
Little less than 2 hours to go. 26 comments, 2 favs. What an incredible ride.
Thanks everyone!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 82 Avg (all users): 7.5069 Avg (commenters): 8.3182 Avg (participants): 7.0930 Avg (non-participants): 7.6092 Views since voting: 6449 Views during voting: 498 Votes: 217 Comments: 72 Favorites: 9 (view)
what an excellent surprise to refresh my home page and see your wonderful photograph here wendy .. was great reading all about the process of getting this shot too ..
birds, squirrels and now bees .. you're so talented .. what next ?!!..:)
Congrats, Wendy! Beat me again ;-/ I guess I'm learning that DPC voters take their challenge titles very literally. But, engineer that I am, I couldn't pass up a photo of bees building bridges. C u in some future challenge.
Looks like you got the most photogenic bee and plopped it on a splendid painting!
Wendy you probably absorbed by now all the hard won praise, but I can't recover for seeing my two favorite pictures getting the first two prizes!
Easy pick for the blue. Congrats. I wonder if the yellow would be more suitable for the challenge owing to the colour similarities :-)
Wonderful shot. Congrats.
Congratulations Wendy on the blue - well earned by the effort put in to get this excellent entry . I didn't quite finish voting this challenge, and unfortunately this gem was one of the few that I missed.
Way to go for taking the extra mile in getting a challenge shot. You should offer some of the pics to the owner for marketing and website. These pics are great!!!!
You actually were a great photojournalist for this challenge - you thought how to tell the story visually, did your research, and landed a terrific photo. :)
Way to go, also, on getting your new 2nd-best score ever. Quite a tricky feat given your high-scoring record!
I was thinking of what I might shoot for this challenge, and the bee on a honeycomb was my thought; I'm glad I didn't look for my shot, because this is the ideal version of what I might have shot. The lighting, the framing and the perfect focus is just ideal. The clear blue winner.
My favorite of the challenge. I really like that you have a bee with the honey in the comb. The rectangle light reflection is a little distracting though. But still my fav and highest vote in the challenge.
Great image! A ribbon contender. I like the sharpness. This shot will be perfect if you wait a little bit longer for the bee head to be more visible.
Anyway, I think I have seen a photo similar to this before.
The Honey Factory
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
